jeblog

a book hunting expedition

One of my favorite activities is to go book-hunting in book stores. It's also a necessity, since I'm still fine-tuning my book list for my comps, and libraries don't always have the books I need in circulation.

I had in hand a list of books I was willing to buy new, thinking I would never find them in a used-book store.

My first stop was Chapters Bookstore. They might very well have had my books, but they were closed (at 6pm, when the website said they closed at 7pm). Annoyance.

So I got back on my bike and headed towards Kramer Books at Dupont Circle (1517 Conn. Ave., NW, Washington DC, no phone number on website--TERRIBLE website, I can't bring myself link it), thinking they might have the litcrit books I needed.*

When I got to Kramer's, I went in search for a good critical edition of Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas de Quincy. I am very disappointed to report that there was not one edition of TdeQ to be had. I even asked the clerk to look for it in the stock database. Not there. I suppose I could have asked them to order it for me, but that's too much of a hassle. I need my books NOW.

So then I went to probably my favorite used-book store, Kultura's Books, at Dupont Circle (1741 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC
(202)462-2541--no website that I could find). I very quickly was reminded why it's one of my favorite places to track down books.

I didn't find an edition of de Quincy, but I otherwise scored bigtime. I found a nice edition of the complete poems of both Keats and Shelley, with many items on my list (pictured). I found a selected poetry and prose of S.T. Coleridge, with more stuff on my comps list. I found a small hardback edition of the essays, letters, and poems of Charles Lamb, including some of the later Elia essays (also on my list). I found an edition of the poetry and prose of Alexander Pope (with two items on my list). I also found books by Dorothy Wordsworth and John Clare (who are auditioning for my list), and an almost-new A Blake Dictionary by S. Foster Damon, which is not on my list but will come in handy.

The fact is that half of those books would probably not be on the shelf at a regular bookstore, or even at many used book stores. I think that's a sad commentary on the state of book stores today. But it also strengthened my resolve to do the work of digitizing out-of-print or too-expensive-to-print works of literature. That's my response and my revenge: "Fine, I'll get it out of some library and then digitize it." Some day, mark my work, you may Google and find a critical edition of de Quincy online, and yours truly will be the editor.

*I might have gone to Barnes and Noble in Georgetown, but I try to avoid the big chains if I can. B&N is always book store of last resort for me.

spinning a sacred circle

I may have committed magic last Saturday.

I needed to get away from my desk and spend some time outdoors on a beautiful day. I got it in my head to go do some spinning outdoors. Not just outdoors, but at some 19th-century setting in the greater Washington area. It's a 19th-century activity, after all, and I wanted to do it in 19th-century space for once.

I decided to head to Georgetown, and from there to the canal tow-path. I had a very 19th-century setting in mind: one of the locks on the canal.

However, once I got there (and went as far on my bike as I wanted to go that day), I found lots of people there. I spun anyway for awhile. The tourists might have thought I was there to help provide 19th-century atmosphere (after all, wasn't that my intention), but I got sick of the tourists and got back on my bike.

I had another, more solitary, place in mind: a bit of woods along the tow-path, where I saw the sun glinting off the Potomac. So I headed there, found the spot, and then bushwacked with my bike into the woods, headed towards the water.

That's when the magic was committed. I found a nice grove in a circle. I thought that's where I should spin. I cast a circle very informally, but I was very intentional about my spinning in a circle of trees, and thought of it as a sacred grove.

After I spun for awhile, I locked my bike to a tree (though it didn't seem there were any people anywhere around) and headed towards the water. The sun was still glinting off the water, and I found a place to meditate, using my jacket as a little pillow.

That's when I noticed a Latino family fishing nearby. I didn't let that stop me. I sat down in the half-lotus position and started to meditate, occasionally startled by a walnut pod falling on the leaves, which sounded a little like the gunfire I hear in my neighborhood occasionally. Soon after, the Latino family came by and I smiled at them and said hello as they passed. They smiled back.

After I meditated I noticed that there was actually a parking lot not far away, where folks go to launch their kayaks. So I guess I didn't have as much solitude as I thought. But it was fine, I had cast a circle, I had made the intention to make this, for the short time I was there, sacred space.

I unlocked my bike, thanked the creatures in the little grove, and bushwacked my way back to civilization.

phoku.30

I took this photo (and composed the haiku) while stuck in traffic outside Los Angeles, as my friend Patty and I headed back to San Diego to catch our flight back to DC.

LA traffic is so iconically bad I thought I had to make the effort to transform it into art. Actually, since Patty and I had recently been on a very peaceful meditation retreat, we chatted and followed our breath, as Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, and had a lovely time navigating the traffic.

And we easily made our flight.

graffito 8

I've been trying to take a picture of this truck for some time. It's usually parked one block over from my house. I was fascinated with the fact that someone would paint their truck with this message.

I find it vaguely Blakean--something William Blake might spray-paint on his truck, if he had a big pink truck. The idea that our so-called reality is the product of our desires and idealizations (fantasies) is one that would appeal to Blake. Though Blake was more artful, and less in-your-face with his messages; it is, after all, Blake's creative passive-aggression that made him an artist rather than (just) a crank.

Now maybe I need to do a stake-out to see who it is created this particular delivery system for this particular message. If I do find out--maybe conduct an interview--I will report it here.

mini-review of Everything Is Illuminated

I liked Everything is Illuminated, though I am not typically a fan of attempts to draw humor from the Holocaust (did not like Life is Beautiful for that reason), and have not read the book.

Liev Schreiber, the first-time director, did a good job of focusing on the little miracles of life, and drew humor not from the Holocaust but by the foibles of very human characters like Jonathan Soer, Alex, and Grandfather--not to mention (non-human) Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. The cinematography is quite luscious, highlighting an incredibly beautiful region of the world (Ukraine). The music was aptly eclectic.

The acting was quite good, especially, as many critics have pointed out, Eugene Hutz (from the gypsy punk group Gogol Bordello) as Alex. Frodo...I mean Elijah Wood was good too. I'll always take him in a quirky role (but I am not in the least tempted to see him as a soccer hooligan in his most recent film).

Any complaints I have might be better directed at the book. I find the coincidences around the character of Grandfather to be a little far-fetched--though I found his end poignant, and would not want that explained. Also, Lista's character--though played well by an incandescent Laryssa Lauret--a little under-drawn and the center of too many convenient coincidences (how exactly was it that she was allowed to wander around her town in fetching shawl and wicker basket while her townspeople were being shot?).

I may want to read the book and see this film again, jsut to make sure I am criticizing the correct party.

It occurs to me at this moment that the "collecting" theme, personified by Jonathan and Lista, might make for an interesting translation into a database-website, that is, being able to access the story through the objects collected.

The film website does not do that, but it is interesting and functional, unlike many of the Flash animation film sites these days.

meditating in deer park

A week ago I returned from a mindfulness retreat in the high desert of Escondido (outside San Diego) California. It was at a monastery called Deer Park, founded by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Thich Nhat Hanh was there giving his teaching, which is always amazing. But perhaps even more profound was spending so much time in silence with 800 people! It was definitely cramped but on a mindfulness retreat everyone is on their best behavior, so it went relatively smoothly. And even if it didn't, those who've done these retreats before know that dealing with the craziness is an important part of the practice.

I took pictures and put together a photo gallery, which you are invited to peruse at the Washington Mindfulness Community website:

http://www.mindfulnessdc.org/deerpark_photos.html

you've got...spindles

I can't really claim credit for this invention (I'm not sure if my boyfriend Wallace can either: he showed me how to make it, but I ran into someone in California who says she's seen them before).

It's a spindle made out of two computer disks. They're not just any disks--they're those pesky, unsolicited disks AOL sends you in the mail once a month, which you feel guilty throwing out, but what else can you do?

Well you can make spindles out of them. I'm sure you can think of other non-traditional uses as well. And if you need a lesson on how to use those spindles, I'd be glad to give you a lesson over the internet.

It's fun, and it's green. Give it a try.

ball o' string

After a few hours of laborious flax spinning, and then untangling it, and then rolling it into a ball, I have...

A ball of string.

I wasn't able to get it thin enough to be useful for knitting, crocheting, or weaving (this is bleached flax, used to make linen). It's a very tough fiber to spin on a spindle, because it's a plant-based fiber, which makes it slippery.

Oh well, I don't really do it to be productive, but rather to relax. Though I think I'll stick with alpaca and wool in future. My boyfriend can use that to make one of his marvelous creations.

mini-review of Rome

I recently saw my first episode of Rome, the HBO series, in the home of a friend who has cable.

I've always been a sucker for the historic stuff and even though this series seems more soap opera than historical epic, I enjoyed it. I have a feeling I'll be renting it on DVD once it comes out when the season is over.

I was, as I often am these days, impressed by the opening credits. I like how the animation was mixed in with the film, and how it focused on the ubiquitous grafitti--remarkably like the modern equivalent--on the walls of Rome. Then, like now, it was a form of dissident media, probably the only one available to the plebes and other resisters.

This is referenced in the episode I saw. Enemies of Julius Caesar initiate a campaign to undercut and mock him by covering the city with grafitti which exposed Caesar's affair with Servilia. The whole city finds out about it, making it clear that grafitti was in fact a viable medium at the time. All classes read it.

(I might also say something about curse as communications medium. After all that "bad press," Caesar dumps Servilia. She responds by going to the temple and putting an elaborate curse on Caesar. We'll see, in later episodes, whether curses were a viable medium at the time. At the very least he his Ides of March coming).

I went to the web site for the series. I was disappointed that, though there are promo clips for episodes, the opening credits were not there to be downloaded. Don't they know they have a very innovative and interesting bit of media on their hands?

The site has the usual stuff (cast and crew, episode guide, along with video clips and t-shirts). It also had something that may be usual, though I've not yet come across it: an interactive "community" site where fans can come together and post messages to a message board. I recently heard about this re: Lost, but I didn't know it was so widespread now. There are also downloads such as computer wallpapers, screensavers, and browser, allowing members of this community to have a very rich media environment for their fantasy life in Rome.

And here at the bottom of the second page that most folks don't get to, I'll admit that I think James Purefoy, who plays Marc Antony, is really hot. More like the power-hungry bad of his character in Resident Evil than the "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" Byronic bad of Vanity Fair, but I still enjoy watching him (especially in the de riguer half-naked-bathing-outside-in-the-courtyard scene).

what rain can do

It's been raining for two days straight. Which is generally good because we've been having a drought here in the DC area (and I just got back from a week in the desert).

Except that my ceiling just sprung a leak. And part of it has fallen to the floor.

Now I know to very tiny extent what folks felt who were in the path of Hurricane Katrina and Rita.

And I hope that's where the comparison stops.

on the march with the mother drum ship

On September 24, I was one of, perhaps, 200,000 folks* who came out to protest the Bush administration's war policies.

I was one of the crew upon the Mother Drum Ship (MDS) of the Rhythm Workers Union. As always, I had a great time drumming and marching, putting out a positive beat, and everyone we encountered had a good time as well.

Check out the photos I took (at the Rhythm Workers Union website):

http://www.rhythmworkersunion.org/photos/
sept24_05/sept24_05_index.html

*Chief Ramsey of the DC police estimated 150,000 (always a notoriously low figure, just as the organizer's estimate is always notoriously high). But he acknowledged it could have been more.